Coronavirus in Russia worse than ever

RUSSIA / FSU POLITICS - In Brief 17 Jul 2021 by Alex Teddy

---

On July 16 Russia suffered 799 coronavirus deaths. That is the highest ever figure. The trajectory is ever upwards. The official figure is 270,000 deaths thus far. The situation is so bad that the government has stopped publishing a daily update on the number of active cases. The reason given is that the data was being misinterpreted, i.e,. reported accurately. State media does not report this with much prominence. The government wants the coronavirus to be last year's story. The country is in the throes of a third wave of coronavirus. The grim data might cause some to doubt whether avoiding a second lockdown was wise. People are reminded yet again of the appalling sluggish vaccine rollout. Moscow and some regions renewed coronavirus restrictions in places in June 2021. But this appears to be inadequate. The only good news is that the number of daily new cases is falling in Moscow. The restrictions are having an impact. The Mayor claims to be vaccinating 110,000 people a day. That must be taken with a pinch of salt. However, there is no doubt that vaccination is speeding up in the capital. The country has to overcome widespread vaccine scepticism. By July 15 60% of Moscovites working in certain sectors were supposed to be vaccinated. Businesses face a USD 13,500 fine for non-compliance. That would be ruinous for most SMEs. SMEs complain that massive corporations can get away with non-compliance because such a fine would be a mere rounding error for them. Most businesses seem to have failed to reach 60% but nonetheless the rule has had an effect. The Mayor has warned that if not enough people are vaccinated he might be re-introduce lockdown. Yet he undermined this tough...